Richard Smith

Name: Richard Smith

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Video games, League of Legends, Music, Tabletop Games

Appearance: Richard is tall at 6'4" and slightly underweight for his height at 151 pounds. Richard is skinny, having little in the way of body fat or muscle definition. His skin is very pale due to a combination of his heritage and not getting enough sunshine. His hair is black, slightly curly, short, and unkempt, usually appearing somewhat greasy and fairly tangled. His face is sharp in appearance, with high cheekbones and a defined jawline. His eyes are blue, and he usually has large, noticeable bags under his eyes due to poor sleeping habits. His default facial expression is a slight scowl. His posture is poor, consistently slumping his body to the left.

Richard is typically seen wearing short sleeved black t-shirts and well-worn blue jeans. A wallet chain can usually be seen hanging from his waist, usually attached to the wallet he has tucked away in his pockets. His shoes are basic tennis shoes, usually either white, black, or blue in color. On the day of the abduction, Richard was wearing a short sleeved black t-shirt and a new pair of blue jeans, with long crew socks and white tennis shoes.

Biography: Richard is an only child, born to Christopher Smith and Colette Smith in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Christopher is unemployed, while Colette works as a lab tech at a local hospital. Richard never got along very well with his father, but is very attached to his mother, regularly taking time out of his day to tell her about what he's been up to and how he's been feeling.

From a young age, Richard has always enjoyed playing video games. His parents got him a Gameboy Advance when he was three years old, along with a few basic games that he could play on it. He often found himself enamored with the worlds he found within his games, the often simple premises and basic challenges of them being good stimulation for his young mind. Upon getting home from school and finishing his homework, he would often walk around his house while playing on his Gameboy, usually playing the same few games over and over again to get better at them, a desire for mastery that he would keep later in life.

Richard's formative years were often difficult, usually at home rather than at school. He entered elementary school at the proper age and had soon gained a small but loyal group of friends. His academic performance at school was often average; he never excelled, but he also never failed. He spent his time at home being cared for by both of his parents, his mom having a schedule that allowed her to get home right after he got home from school, with his dad serving as transportation to and from school. As Richard got slightly older, Christopher started to take a more active, controlling role in his son's life, often berating him for small mistakes, making any errors out to be large problems and punishing him harshly for them, and trying to dictate who Richard was allowed to be friends with. This often made Richard feel apprehensive towards his father, never knowing quite how to please him.

As Richard grew older and entered middle school, his father's controlling behavior worsened, with Christopher's criticisms and punishments growing harsher, justifying this behavior by saying that he expected Richard to be better. It was around this time that Richard's mother began to step in, criticizing Christopher's parenting methods and explaining to him that a more gentle approach is necessary for healthy childhood development. Christopher didn't listen, however, instead choosing to shout and argue whenever the topic was brought up. These arguments stressed Richard, and soon thereafter he began to blame himself for what was happening, leading to feelings of worthlessness.

As his parent's arguments grew louder and more mean-spirited, Richard found himself retreating not only to his video games, but also to music. Before this point, Richard had mostly been enjoying music casually, listening primarily to whatever was the on the radio and random music videos that he saw online. However, after discovering and listening to various tracks from the Wu-Tang Clan, Richard began to take a keen interest in hip-hop and rap music. Finding and listening to tracks from all sorts of different artists, Richard soon found himself appreciating the hyper-focus on rhythm that hip-hop and rap embodied, and after diversifying his tastes, could often be found listening to the songs either to relax during quiet periods, or to drown out his parents arguing.

As Richard neared the end of his time in middle school, his parents' constant arguments reached a fever pitch, culminating in Christopher striking Colette and the police being called. Shortly after this occurred, Colette filed for divorce, and after a relatively short court battle, managed to gain full custody of Richard, citing her ex-husband's abuse as a reason that Richard should be kept away from him. Richard and Colette then moved to a new apartment nearby their old domicile, to begin a life away from Christopher. Richard was distraught at the proceedings, blaming himself for the arguments and the divorce. While Colette tried to assure Richard that he did nothing wrong, his feelings worsened all the same, and Colette began bringing him to therapy sessions, to help him deal with the divorce.

These therapy sessions slowly revealed that Richard had depression, and had been dealing with it since he began middle school, due to his father's abuse. His therapist initially tried to help him through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy but his feelings steadfastly refused to improve. The therapist recommended various antidepressants in response to this, but it was soon found that none of these medications improved Richard's mental state. Due to his depression not resulting in suicidal feelings, the therapist recommended just continuing cognitive behavioral therapy, and generally helping Richard cope with his feelings.

Once Richard entered high-school, he began to play League of Legends, after some of his friends had recommended it to him. He soon found himself immensely enjoying the game after he surmounted its learning curve, enjoying the aspect of competition that the game had, and the potential for mastery that the game presented to him. It soon began to dominate the vast majority of his free time, constantly playing either casual games with multiple friends or ranked games by himself.

Richard's academic performance in high school was often poor as a result of his depression. While he never failed a class, most of his grades were Cs and Ds, with the rare B in history courses that Richard enjoyed and took an interest in. Socially, Richard was far more closed off than he had been when he was younger, his surly attitude and emotional instability driving most people away from him. Still, he managed to retain some of his friends, especially those that played League of Legends with him.

Midway through high school, Richard found himself being dragged along by one of his friends to the school's Tabletop Gaming Club. While initially hesitant to join in on the games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, Richard soon found himself enjoying them. He liked the freeform experience that tabletops provided, being inherently unpredictable in a way that most video games weren't. He soon found himself becoming a regular club member, roleplaying in a way that brought out a lot of personality he didn't usually show.

Later in high school, Richard's depression worsened further as his mother started to rely on him emotionally more and more, as she found trouble obtaining new relationships after the divorce. He began to feel suicidal, and was soon hospitalized after detailing these feelings to his therapist. It was there that he underwent electroshock therapy for his treatment-resistant depression, which managed to alleviate some of his symptoms, but not all of them.

Richard has a fairly negative view of life, being intensely cynical about the intentions of people he doesn't know, and pessimistic about the potential of the future. He's a staunch atheist, refusing to believe that any benevolent god would allow him to be as sad as he often is. He has a nihilistic outlook on life, seeing little to no meaning in day to day existence and defaulting to simply playing by the rules of whatever situation he's in. Richard is melancholic, surly, and generally hard to get along with. He's anti-social and doesn't like to interact with other people most of the time, taking care to avoid crowds and groups that aren't a part of his circle of friends. He tends to be argumentative and is easy to irritate. He's cold and curt to those he doesn't know and trust, though the few people that he lets past his prickly shell will often find that he's actually fairly sensitive and caring to those who make the effort to be his friend.

Richard's future plans are tenuous, though he does have the desire to be a professional gamer in League of Legends after gaining interest in its eSports scene. He has plateaued at the rank of Diamond 2 in League of Legends, and is frustrated by his inability to climb higher, often blaming his teammates for their losses. He has no real plans to go to college after high school, though he could presumably be convinced by his mother to at least attempt to earn a degree.

Advantages: Richard's nihilistic outlook combined with his competitive personality may cause him to embrace the rules of the game where others might hesitate, and have him take on a more active role on the island. Richard's surly demeanor and imposing height could be fairly intimidating to those smaller than him, thus enabling him to avoid confrontation when it's unnecessary.

Disadvantages: Richard's depression could easily worsen under the stressful conditions of the island, potentially bringing out latent suicidal feelings and resulting in his death. Additionally, he's also fairly out of shape, having spent most of his life being sedentary indoors, which could make it easier for similarly sized people to overpower him.

Designated Number: Male student No. 044

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Designated Weapon: Sig-Sauer pistol

Conclusion: Shit man, if you'd ever chill out you might've had some allies. Or in layman's terms, stop being a Richard. - Josh Baines

'The above biography is as written by VoltTurtle. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: VoltTurtle

Kills: None

Killed By: Quinn Abert

Collected Weapons: Sig-Sauer pistol (assigned weapon, to Quinn Abert)

Allies: 

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Richard, in chronological order.

V7 Pregame: V7:
 * Least Of All Young Caroline
 * Dead Clicks
 * We're Gonna Need a Better Boat
 * Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay
 * Life Anew

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Richard Smith. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''